Photo credit: Hara Amorós / Riot Games Flickr / LVP / lag
UK/Lithuanian Valorant player Dom ‘Soulcas’ Sulcas has won the recent VCT 2023 EMEA Playoffs in Berlin after beating Fnatic 3-1 in the grand final.
Liquid started the playoffs in the upper bracket qualifier after finishing third in the regular season standings, with six wins and three losses.
They beat Vitality 2-1 then Navi 2-0, before falling 2-0 to Fnatic in the upper bracket final. But a 3-0 stomp over FUT Esports secured a rematch with Fnatic, this time in the grand final. This was a relatively even final in terms of map scorelines, but Liquid got the wins that counted.
It was an achievement made even more impressive by the fact that Liquid ended Fnatic’s 21-game win streak, with confident Fnatic UK Valorant player Boaster saying ‘we can win anything’ ahead of the VCT 2023 EMEA Playoffs.
Soulcas and Liquid have now also qualified for VCT 2023 Valorant Masters Tokyo (which takes place later this month), as have Fnatic, FUT Esports and Navi from EMEA.
Liquid, Fnatic, Loud and Paper Rex are top seeded teams, while FUT, Navi, NRG, Evil Geniuses, DRX, T1 Attacking Soul Esports and Edward Gaming are group stage teams.
Liquid’s Valorant roster in the final also included Jamppi (Finland), nAts (Russia), Redgar (Russia) and Sayf (Sweden).
Soulcas on winning VCT EMEA 2023: ‘I’m on a path upwards’
Soulcas told host Yinsu Collins on stage after the match: “It feels like it’s the start of the redemption arc, you know, I’m gonna go back up. Especially from what happened in Brazil and I’m slowly on a path upwards. Who would’ve thought?
“Honestly, it’s such a dream to experience this. And now we know what it feels like to win, we want to win more.”
When asked by Yinsu if this is the best Liquid Valorant roster he’s been on, he replied: “I’ll let the result speak for itself.”
Soulcas also added on Twitter that he was proud of everyone at Liquid and their hard work:
Yinsu described Soulcas as an OG – he’s been on Liquid’s Valorant roster for coming up to three years now, when Team Liquid signed the Fish123 UK Valorant roster and ScreaM.
He’s been through ups and downs since then, with Liquid having mixed results, but his commitment and perseverance have paid off.
Soulcas was previously a Counter-Strike player before making the switch to Valorant when it launched.
He recently said in a Soulcas interview on the Team Liquid website: “I don’t think the UK scene really had a playstyle or an identity. The period I was in, it was in a very weird place. UK CS, before I played CS, was a lot more on the international level, back in Source. But when all those [Source] players kind of stopped playing I think we lost the identity.
“Because I know other countries that have tons of identity, like Turkish players are very aggressive in the game, like they just go run and peek stuff. I think the UK mainly had a lot of toxic people.”
“It feels like it’s the start of the redemption arc, you know, I’m gonna go back up. Honestly, it’s such a dream to experience this. And now we know what it feels like to win, we want to win more.”
Soulcas, Team Liquid
Soulcas also complimented Into the Breach, a UK org that recently reached top eight in the CSGO Paris Major, saying he used to go to LANs with ITB players Thomas and Cypher back when he played Counter-Strike.
He also said he believes the UK is doing better in Valorant than in CS, and that back in the day it was ‘very hard to escape the UK black hole’ and break out of the UK scene to bigger CS tournaments.
Soulcas himself said he’s on a path upwards, and after a display like this, that’s clear for all to see. All eyes will now be on Tokyo, as Liquid face their next test on an even bigger stage.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
